


The Simplest of Plans

by kayleeschuyler (stephaniebithell)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Delirium, Explicit Language, Graphic Description, Injury, Inspired by Music, Langst, M/M, Whump, explicit description of injury, untitled by simple plan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-23 22:09:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10728261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephaniebithell/pseuds/kayleeschuyler
Summary: Lance is badly hurt, he needs to get a message to his team to let them know that he and Blue are down but how can he get to his communicator when he is in so much pain?





	1. Chapter 1

Lance groaned as he cracked his eyes open just a little, as he tried to see where he was he realised that he was slumped over the control panel inside Blue.  He winced as he tried to move his body, a sharp pain racing up his body from every direction, he could feel everything so that was a good sign, right? 

Raising his head he looked out through the window in front of him and he realised that he had crashed in Blue as he saw that he was in a large crater with small fires burning all around him.  He croaked out a pained noise, hoping to call out to his team when he realised that his helmet had been knocked loose in the crash and was sitting on the ground a few feet away.  He needed to get in contact with the others, he had to let them know that Blue had no power and couldn’t fight.

He shifted his weight slowly as to not upset his stomach, which was threatening to bring back up his last meal, either lunch or dinner he couldn’t remember.  Shaking his head gingerly as it throbbed, he went to stand and screamed in agony as his right leg flared in pain and he dropped to the ground unable to support his own weight.  He lay on his side for a few moments, resisting the urge to throw up and tried to calm his heart, what had happened to his leg to cause _that_ kind of pain?

Once he decided that he had calmed down enough he slowly raised himself onto his arms and braved a glance down at his leg.  ‘Whelp there goes my lunch/dinner’, he thought to himself as he finally lost that battle to the sight of the bone protruding through the cracked and blood soaked armour that wrapped around his calf.  He continued dry heaving long after he had emptied his stomach and scrunched his face up at the smell of bile and other funky odors that were wafting up from the mess on the floor. 

‘Sorry girl, I’ll clean you right up when I get back to the castle,’ he thought to Blue but couldn’t feel her presence in his mind like he normally did, whatever had happened to her had completely shut her down.  Glancing over his shoulder to his helmet, it wasn’t so far away, he could probably drag himself but he thought back to his leg and winced at the thought of pulling that over the rough metal floor. 

He thought back to Blue, she had done so much for him ever since he had found her in that cave, he had to get help for her, he had to push through the pain and reach his helmet.  He took a deep breath and pulled himself forwards and screamed at the sensation of his leg being torn apart but he couldn’t let this stop him, he had to keep going. 

‘Move your ass McClain!’ he screamed internally, urging himself on to keep pushing forwards towards his helmet.  Drag, scream, deep breath, drag, scream, deep breath, drag, scream, deep breath.  He kept up the mantra until he lifted his hand to pull himself again only to touch the smooth surface of his goal.  He snatched the cool material and let out an exhausted sigh, opening his eyes he saw that he was next to one of the walls in the cockpit. 

Slowly and painfully, he shifted his body to lean up against the metal wall and looked down at the helmet, the visor was cracked and a large dent was visible to one side.  He turned it around to give it another once over and blanched, the entire inside was covered in blood.  He raised his hand to his head and felt the clumped and mattered hair around the large gash where the blood was still pouring from. 

He whimpered at the feeling of dizziness that was starting to overtake him and he knew that if he didn’t get a message to his team soon, he would pass out and he wasn’t sure if he would be waking up before his wounds became fatal from the blood loss.

Hands shaking he raised the helmet and placed it back on his head, trying to bite back the scream when the dented part touched his wound.  He could hear static from the communicator and after tapping it a few times he could finally hear voices coming through periodically.

“-ro!  Wat- out!”

“You- -ight!”

“Lo- out!”

Lance tried to call out to them but instead a coughing fit plagued him and he whimpered at the sharp pains that stabbed at his ribs.

“Lance?”

‘Shiro!’ he thought as the voice came though clearly, the coughing fit must have moved the wires in his helmet back into place as all the sounds from the battle that was still raging in the sky came back in full force.

“Sh- *cough* -iro?” he tried weakly his eyes widening as he saw blood splatter on the hand that he had raised to cover his cough, ‘That isn’t good’.

“Lance?  Where are you?” Keith shouted.

“Lance?  Speak to me buddy!” Shiro called over the top of him, “What happened?”

“Cr-crashed.  Blue.  Down.  H-hurt,” he managed before another coughing fit erupted and this time he could see that his entire hand was now covered in blood.  ‘Great, now I have internal bleeding to worry about!’

“Where are you?” he could hear Shiro calling, “I can’t find Blue’s locator beacon!”

Lance rested his head back against the wall fighting a spell of light headedness, “No power,” he croaked out.

“I need you to give me something to go off to find you Lance,” Shiro called.  Lance could tell he was starting pass out and bit his lip to stay awake.

“Crater.”

“Crater?”

“Lance?” Hunk called joining the conversation.

“Hunk I need you, Pidge and Keith to finish up here.  I am going to find Lance.  Princess can you and Coran please ready a pod?  I think Lance is pretty beat up,” Shiro rattled off as Lance tried to stay conscious.

“O-ok,” Hunk said hesitantly.

“Roger,” Pidge called, “Come on Keith, the sooner we kick these guy’s asses the sooner we can help Lance!”  Lance didn’t hear Keith’s response as he passed out from the pain that was growing throughout his body. 

 

He dreamt of home, his mother’s smile, his father’s booming laugh, the screams and shrieks of his brothers and sisters. 

“LANCE!”

He opened his eyes and was back in the cockpit, his body aching and the sounds of battle raging in his head.  He could hear Shiro call for him, getting more frantic with each call.

“Present,” he replied with a weak smile at his joke before coughing again.

“Come on buddy, keep talking to me ok?”

“W-what about?” he asked as he felt his strength draining as he watched the blood pooling around him from his multiple injuries and could feel his lungs starting to fill with blood.  ‘Is this how I am going to die?’ he thought as a sudden chill racked his entire body and he thought it odd that it didn’t hurt anymore.

“How are you feeling?”

“Cold.  S-Shiro I, I can’t feel the p-pain anymore,” he admitted.  He didn’t want to die and he knew that it was a big possibility at this point in time.

“Lance, focus!  I am almost there!  I can see Blue!  Oh god.”

He had never head Shiro this scared before, did it really look that bad from out there?  He could feel his chest getting heavier with the fluid building up and it was getting harder to breathe.  It was ironic that he was the Guardian Spirit of Water and that he was probably going to die by drowning.  He chuckled which turned into another coughing fit, he wondered if the blood he was coughing up was affecting the levels in his lungs.

The ground shook suddenly and Lance saw the bone that was still protruding from his leg move in the opposite direction to his foot and knew that it should be causing him immense pain but all he could do was sit there in sick fascination at the sight. 

“FUCK!  LANCE!” Lance shifted his focus to the movement in the doorway to the cockpit.  It was Shiro, he had found him.

“H-hey S-Shiro.  W-what took you s-so long?” he said in a barely audible voice.

“Hang on Lance, I am going to get you out of here!” he heard Shiro call as he passed out again.

 

Lance stood on a beach, it wasn’t his beach but it was so similar, the same white sand, the crystal blue water but there wasn’t another person, or alien, around.  He started walking parallel to the ocean, sometimes letting the cool water wash over his bare feet, he looked down and saw that he was in a light blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and cream dress pants also rolled up.  He smiled, if he was going to die at least he was dying in style.

He thought back over his life, what had he really accomplished in the few years that he had lived?  He had helped his parent’s raise the zoo that was his family, he had been accepted into the Garrison, he had been shot off into space in a magical lion and he had fought in an intergalactic war that didn’t seem to be ending. 

He stopped walking as he realised that his family would never know what happened to him, sure the Garrison probably told them some cover story, how were they to know what had really happened, but when he never returned, how long would it take for his family to lose hope? 

He realised that there was something that hurt even more than never seeing his family back on Earth, his new family, Allura, Coran, Shiro, Hunk, Pidge and Keith.  He would never get to see them again, he wouldn’t be able to sit with Allura braiding her hair with the mice as she told him about her father and the places she had seen as a child, he wouldn’t be able to chat with Coran as they cleaned the different areas of the castle and they would play a game of pick the lie where Coran would tell him outrageous stories of Altea and Lance would have to decipher which ones were real, he wouldn’t be able to sit with Shiro on the viewing deck and watch the stars in peace, he wouldn’t be able to get into trouble with Hunk or eat his amazing creations, he wouldn’t be able to sit with Pidge as she worked on her latest project or help her in deciphering the latest intel she had found on her family.

But hurt even more was the thought of never being able to train with Keith or curl up with him and watch a movie from the limited list they had managed to bring with them on Pidge’s laptop.  He wouldn’t be able to dance with him and watch Keith stumble over the simplest steps, he wouldn’t be able to watch him blush as Lance complimented him, he wouldn’t be able to run his fingers through that thick mane of hair as they lay in bed together talking about their past and future and he wouldn’t be able to kiss him anymore.

Lance dropped to the ground and let the water rush over him as the tears fell down and Lance screamed in pain as all the emotions exploded out, anger, hurt, fear, loneliness and so many more that he couldn’t name.  He sat there for what seemed like an eternity crying to himself when abruptly he felt a sharp shock explode through his body, throwing him to the ground fully.

Before he could take a breath the sensation hit him again and he swore he heard someone call his name but the sound was faint and was gone in an instant.  His limbs were tingling as his heart started racing, what was happening to him?  What this it?  Was this what happened when people died?  If so then this sucks and they should put a warning out to everyone, you don’t get a free ride to heaven or wherever you go, you have to deal with a shit load of pain before they let you through the pearly white gates.

_LANCE!_

There is was again, that voice!  It was stronger this time and now he could recognise the person calling him, “Keith?” he called.  If Keith had died as well he was going to kill that boy, it was bad enough that Lance was dead but if they lost Keith as well then he didn’t know if they would truly recover from losing the two best things that had ever happened to them, in his own opinion.

_COME ON LANCE!  BREATHE!_

Why would he need to breathe?  He was dead, wasn’t he?  He frowned as he noticed that his chest was getting sore, why would that be happening?  He suddenly took a deep breath and his eyes flew open revealing a stark white room with a loud beeping sound constantly ringing in his ears.

He could hear someone crying close by and he hurt all over but before he could make a sound he felt his body convulsing again as he tried to bring up all the fluids that had built up in his lungs.  Someone’s hands gently tilted his body so he was lying on his side on a cold bench as it felt like he was coughing up a lung, which was quite possible. 

Once his body had finished expelling as much of the liquid as possible he was able to draw a breath without feeling like he was drowning.  He wheezed through fire in his throat, trying to gage what had actually happened, he had just been on a deserted beach preparing for death and now he was in what looked like the med bay of castle hacking up a lung.

“W-what?”

“Welcome back to the land of the living Lance,” he heard Hunk say from somewhere out of his line of sight.

“You gave us quite a shock young paladin,” Coran added.

“You died.” 

Keith!  That was Keith’s voice!  Lance struggled to raise his head to look for him but was saved the effort when his boyfriend crouched down in front of him with a strained look.

“You promised you wouldn’t die on me.  You broke your promise Lance.”

Lance hated seeing that look of agony on Keith’s face and tried to smile, “I’m still here aren’t I?” he asked weakly, “So technically I didn’t break my promise.”

“Doesn’t matter, you still died.  We had to bring you back!” Keith growled, “You are lucky that Coran and Allura had something similar to defib pads here or you wouldn’t be there right now!”

“How about we get you into a healing pod before you two start making out again?” Shiro asked with a relieved look and stooped to pick Lance up.  Lance cried out as the rest of his injuries made themselves known again and he heard Shiro’s apology but couldn’t focus on anything but Keith.

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” Keith said as Lance felt the familiar cold air of the healing pod envelope him.

“I love you,” Lance called softly and smirked as he saw Keith’s shocked reaction as he closed his eyes and slept.


	2. Keith and Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a mirror fic of the one shot I wrote from the perspective of Shiro and Keith.

“Promise me something Lance.  Promise you won’t go and die on me.”  Keith looked up from he sat on the bed at Lance who had been sitting on the ledge near the window of their room, his blue eyes were wide with shock at Keith’s sudden request.

“What?”  

“Promise you won’t die,” Keith repeated.

“Where is this coming from Keith?” Lance asked, concern marring his usually calm face.

“I just don’t want to lose you.  I don’t think I could handle being alone again.”  Keith ducked his head and wrung his hands, “I’ve already lost so many people, I –I can’t…”  He felt the tears threatening to break free and dug his nails into his hands to try and stop them.  He heard Lance get up from where he had been sitting and saw him kneel to the ground in front of himself.

“Keith, I will never leave you, you know that right?  I will always be right here, by your side.  They are going to have to drag me away kicking and screaming before that happens.”

Keith smiled at the image Lance was portraying, “Promise?”

Lance took his hands and brought them to his lips, kissing them lightly before speaking, “I promise you that I will never leave you, that I will always be there by your side and that I will never die on you.”

Keith blushed at the intense feelings that Lance brought forwards with his few words and simple gestures, “Thank you.” 

Keith was so wrapped up in his feelings of loneliness and affection that he failed to see the smirk on Lance’s face before it was too late.  Keith swore as he made to dodge his boyfriend but he was too fast, Lance’s hands wrapped around his wrists and pulled them above his head and he felt his blood run cold.  He let out a shriek of laughter as Lance pinned him down on the bed with one arm and attacked his now unprotected sides, tickling him.

“Lance!  Cut it out!” he cried as he bucked and twisted, trying to squirm his way free to no avail.  Lance just grinned as he continued his relentless assault on his boyfriend, knowing full well that Keith was extremely ticklish.  Keith managed to wrench one of his hands free and started his own counter attack by grabbing Lance by the back of his neck and pulling him down for a kiss. 

He had startled Lance so much by his unexpected move that he had let go of Keith’s other arm and had relaxed his body in a way that Keith was able to flip their positions so he was the one kneeling above Lance.  He just stared up at Keith with a stunned look and a blush creeping across his face, “Well that was unexpected.”

“Yeah well I figured it would work as a good distraction so I could escape,” Keith shot back.

“You’ve never made the first move like that before,” Lance said, “It’s kinda hot.”

Before they could take it any further the castle alarms blared loudly, “PALADINS!  I NEED EVERYONE ON THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY!”  Allura’s voice called through the speaker in their room and in an instant both Keith and Lance were on their feet racing towards the bridge.

They both arrived before the other three paladins and saw that Allura was standing at her station where she piloted the castle and Coran at his control panel furiously trying away.  “Allura!  What is going on?” Keith called out as he burst through the doors hand in hand with Lance.  Before she could respond, Shiro, Pidge and Hunk all arrived together and looked expectantly at the others for the rundown of why the alarms where sounding.

“We have received a distress beacon from a nearby planet.  They are being attacked by the Galra and report a large fleet of ships are bearing down on them and have already destroyed some parts of the planet.  They don’t have a large army and can’t defend themselves anymore, they need Voltron.”

Shiro stepped forwards, “How long until we get there?”

“Two dobash’s if we hurry,” Coran replied as he entered the coordinates into the computer.

“Alright team, let’s get suited up and ready to launch,” Shiro called to the others as they made their way to their lifts.

Keith squeezed Lance’s hand for a moment before kissing him and whispering, “Remember your promise,” before he dashed off to his doorway.

 

There were Galra ships everywhere, hundreds of them, firing on the planet unforgivingly.  Shiro growled as he saw a part of land explode violently and he swore he saw the entire planet vibrate from the shockwave.  “We need to stop them from firing on the planet’s surface!” he called through the coms, “Keith, I want you and Hunk to do what you can about the smaller ships.  Lance, Pidge, you are with me, we are taking out the larger warships.”

“Yes sir!”

“Ten-Four!”

 “On it!”

“Let’s do this!”

The battle was intense, Shiro was constantly dodging ion blasts from the dozen warships that he was trying to take down.  He spotted Lance and Pidge using their special beams to freeze and constrict the ships with vines, “Good work team.  Not much longer now!”

“Pidge!” He heard Lance call abruptly as the Blue lion slammed into the Green one, knocking them away from a shot from one of the still operational warships.

“Pidge!  Lance!  Are you both ok?” he yelled.

“I’m ok,” Pidge replied.

“Ow!  That was a bit too close!” Lance called.

“Did either of you get hit?”

“Blue has been better but we should still be good to go,” Lance said “We might not be as fast as we were but we won’t let that stop us, right beautiful?”

Even though they were in the middle of battle, Shiro marvelled at the way Lance spoke to Blue as if she were his lover at times.  He had to admit that he did feel the same way about Black from time to time but could never express it in the same way.  He grunted as a laser hit Black while he was distracted and activated his jaw blade, running it through the offending ship in retaliation.

While he was rampaging he could see Hunk and Keith tearing apart the numerous swarms of smaller Galra ships, he smirked as he watched Keith use his fire gun to literally melt his enemies.  In the corner of his eye he also saw Pidge use her cloaking device to stealth past five warships and take them all out instantaneously.

“Nice Pidge!” he called as he also took out another warship.

There was only one left and it was the one that Lance was currently fighting.  Shiro moved in to help as soon as he saw that Lance was struggling to take it down by himself, “You ok there Lance?”

“Uh, a little help would be great here guys!”

But before Shiro could reach them, he was forced to dodge as another ion blast was fired in his direction.  Once the shot died down Shiro continued his approach but realised something was off, Blue was no longer in sight.  Where was Lance?

“Lance?” he called over the coms pulling up Black for a moment as he looked around for Blue and Lance, “Lance, answer me!”

The only response he got was the rest of the team yelling at the Galra as they fought in their own battles, complete unaware that Lance had disappeared.

“Has anyone seen Lance?” he yelled, getting desperate.  He cried as he was forced to dodge another attack from the warship and he remembered he was in the middle of a battle and couldn’t afford to get distracted.

 

“Shiro!  Watch out!” Pidge called as she destroyed the Galra ships that were gunning for him. 

“Your right!”

“Look out!”

A rough coughing sound crackled over their coms before a high pitched whine echoed through Shiro’s helmet and his blood ran cold.

“Lance?”

“Sh- *cough* -iro?”

“Lance?  Where are you?” Keith shouted as he slashed through the swarm of Galra ships in front of him.

“Lance?  Speak to me buddy!” Shiro called over the top of him, “What happened?”

“Cr-crashed.  Blue.  Down.  H-hurt,” Lance replied before coughing harshly again.

“Where are you?” Shiro called as he tried to pull up Blue’s location on his screens, “I can’t find Blue’s locator beacon!”

“No power,” Lance croaked out.

“I need you to give me something to go off to find you Lance,” Shiro called pulling up a visual of the planet’s surface. 

“Crater.”

‘What?  What did he mean by that?’ Shiro wondered before replying, “Crater?”

“Lance?” Hunk called joining the conversation.

“Hunk I need you, Pidge and Keith to finish up here.  I am going to find Lance.  Princess can you and Coran please ready a pod?  I think Lance is pretty beat up,” Shiro rattled off as he tried to keep calm as he heard the laboured breathing.

“O-ok,” Hunk said hesitantly.

“Roger,” Pidge called, “Come on Keith, the sooner we kick these guy’s asses the sooner we can help Lance!” 

“They won’t last more than a dobash,” Keith growled menacingly.

 

“Lance?  Lance!  LANCE!” Shiro called, getting more worried with each unanswered call.

 “Present,” he replied before coughing again.

“Come on buddy, keep talking to me ok?”

“W-what about?”

“How are you feeling?” He winced at the question but it really was the first thing that came to mind when put on the spot.

“Cold.  S-Shiro I, I can’t feel the p-pain anymore,”

Shiro didn’t like the sound of that, “Lance, focus!  I am almost there!  I can see Blue!  Oh god.”

Shiro couldn’t believe his eyes, the crater that Blue was lying in the middle of had fires raging everywhere but that wasn’t the worst thing he could see.  Blue herself was lying torn apart, her front left leg had been completely ripped away from her body, scorch marks littered her right hand side from where she and Lance had protected Pidge earlier and there was a massive hole in her belly where she was hit the second time. 

He guided Black down to land and leapt from his seat, he kept praying that Lance wasn’t as hurt as he thought he was, that the damage to Blue had been the worst of it and that he had just hit his head.  He barely thought about the height as he jumped from Blacks mouth to the ground, not even bothering with his jetpack, rolling to absorb the impact. 

Dodging the fires that blazed everywhere was difficult and he had to close up his helmet to make sure he didn’t breathe in the toxic gases that were building up, another thing that he was worried about was the fact that Lance had been lying in these fumes for so long already and if he hadn’t closed his helmet like Shiro it would make everything worse.

Not even bothering to see if Blue would open her mouth he mumbled a quiet apology as he entered her through the hole in her belly.  Inside the damage seemed worse, there were broken pieces of metal strewn everywhere, sparks were flying from where cables had been broken and he saw one broken pipe spewing a cloud into the cabin.  Shiro had to be careful where he stood as there was almost no clear space on the floor and if he stood in the wrong spot he himself could become too badly injured to help his teammate and friend.

He reached the doorway to the cockpit and touched the panel to open the doors, only for nothing to happen.  He tried again with no success.  He realised that Blue was that badly damaged that nothing was working, Lance had tried to tell him that he had no power but Shiro didn’t realise how bad the situation really was.  Activating his metal arm he held his hand flat and used the power to force his way through until he created a small gap and managed to push the door open.

The smell was the first thing that hit him.  The overpowering stench of vomit made him gag slightly before he saw the prone figure leaning up against the wall of the cockpit.  Shiro felt like someone had dumped him in an ice lake as he took in Lance’s condition.  He was sitting in a large pool of blood, his head lolling around as if he could barely control it, his helmet was cracked and dented, his normally tan skin was extremely pale and it was then that he noticed the bone protruding from Lance’s leg.

“FUCK!  LANCE!” he called as he dashed over to the blue paladin’s side dropping to his knees.

“H-hey S-Shiro.  W-what took you s-so long?” Lance replied in a barely audible voice.

“Hang on Lance, I am going to get you out of here!” Shiro called as he saw Lance’s eyes roll back and his entire body go slack.

 

Keith’s heart was pounding as he raced through the castle towards the med bay.  He had heard Shiro’s call for all the medical equipment to be on standby and he knew that meant that Lance was in really bad shape.  He skidded to a stop when he saw the blood on the ground in front of him, it was a trail leading towards the med bay and Keith didn’t want to think about what would had happened to Lance to cause that kind of blood loss.

Once he reached the med bay he heard shouting coming from behind the doors and he hesitated for just a tick before he took a breath and walked through the doors.  Inside was a flurry of panic and people racing everywhere, Coran was at a computer station, Pidge was racing through one of the other entrances with a large pile of towels, Hunk was pulling together a bunch of different types of medical equipment, some that Keith had never seen before and Allura and Shiro were leaning over an extremely still body

“Shiro?” he said as he slowly moved towards the metal table in the middle of the room.

Shiro looked up when he heard his name and paled, “Keith.”

The tone in Shiro’s voice almost broke Keith, he had never heard Shiro sound like that before and his mind immediately went to the worst possible reason why.  Lance was dead.

“Is he-?” he started and before Shiro could respond a bunch of different alarms all went off at the same time.

“He’s stopped breathing!”

“I’m not getting a reading of his heart Princess!”

“Lance!  Come on buddy stay with us!”

“We have to do something!”

Keith couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  His Lance was lying prone, not breathing, his huge heart that belonged to Keith had stopped beating. The tears fell without warning and Keith collapsed to the ground wrapping his arms around his body and cried out, “He broke his promise.  He left me alone.”

“Keith!” Hunk called as he saw the red paladin collapse to the ground with a gut wrenching scream. 

“Hunk I need you to find something to help us bring him back!” Allura called as she started CPR while Shiro coached her on the correct way to do it on humans.

“Will this work?” Hunk called as he pulled out what looked like a defibrillator paddle kit.

“That will send an electrical current straight through him!  That would kill him for sure!” Coran yelled as he looked up.

“No!  That is exactly what he needs!” Keith called as he roused himself from where he sat on the floor.  “Humans need that when their hearts stop beating!” 

As Hunk brought the kit over to the table, Keith moved to stand at Lance’s head, bending down to whisper in his ear.

“Come on Lance.  You need to be strong and live.  You need to come back to me, to all of us.”

He heard the whine of the machine as it charged and Allura called to everyone to stand clear before she placed the paddles on Lance’s chest and pressed the button.  Lance’s entire body spasmed from the current that ran through his body.

“Lance!” Keith called but he didn’t move.

“Again!” Allura called and the machine charged a second time.  “Stand clear!” she called again and again Lance’s body lurched upwards but still no response.

“LANCE!” Keith called again, “COME ON LANCE!  BREATHE!”

Suddenly Lance’s eyes flew open and he took a deep breath of air before he started coughing and tried to curl up on his side.  Keith saw Allura help him by moving his shoulder to allow him to lie on his side as he coughed up so much blood that Keith wondered how he had come back at all.  After what felt like a lifetime the coughing subsided and Lance started wheezing.

“W-what?” Lance tried to ask.

“Welcome back to the land of the living Lance,” he heard Hunk say.

“You gave us quite a shock young paladin,” Coran added.

“You died.” 

Keith moved from where he had been standing next to Lance’s head and crouched down in front of him with a strained look.

“You promised you wouldn’t die on me.  You broke your promise Lance.”

Lance tried to smile, “I’m still here aren’t I?” he asked weakly, “So technically I didn’t break my promise.”

“Doesn’t matter, you still died.  We had to bring you back!” Keith growled, “You are lucky that Coran and Allura had something similar to defib pads here or you wouldn’t be there right now!”

“How about we get you into a healing pod before you two start making out again?” Shiro asked with a relieved look and stooped to pick Lance up.  Lance cried out as the rest of his injuries made themselves known again and he heard Shiro’s apology but all Keith was concerned about what Lance.

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” Keith said as the healing pod activated.

“I love you,” Lance called softly and smirked before drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg I cannot believe how much response I have received from this story! In 4 days I have had 1200 views!!!!!! That is incredible for a new fandom, style of writing and subject matter!
> 
> I cannot thank you all enough for your amazing support and I hope that you all enjoed this chapter. Make sure to hit me up on tumblr at stephaniebithell https://stephaniebithell.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that was a painful and emotional ride, I hope you are all still with me here at the end, this was inspired by the song Untitled by Simple Plan, it is a really emotional song and every time I hear it I cry. 
> 
> I have been reading a lot of whump, sickfics and just general langst stories over the past few days and honestly this idea has been gnawing at the back of my brain for over a week and I just didn't know how to write it until today.
> 
> I usually prefer my fluff and romance stories with just a little hint of angst so this is not my normal forte and I honestly don't know if I did the genre justice so let me know what your thoughts are. Should I stick to my fluff or continue to dabble on the dark side?


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